On the 9th February, inspired in part by the emotional televised interview with Wael Ghonim, the largest crowd of protesters in two weeks occupied Tahrir Square, surrounded the Egyptian Parliament and staged sporadic demonstrations and strikes in several Egyptian cities. In a late-night address to the nation, Mr. Mubarak unexpectedly refused to budge, saying he would stay on through the end of his term. Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit dismissed calls by Egyptian protesters and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scrap the country’s emergency laws, which allow the authorities to detain people without charges.
Four days later, The uprising’s leading organizers asked protesters to leave the square. Swiss officials ordered all banks in Switzerland to search for — and freeze — any assets of the former president, his family or close associates. In Egypt, opposition leaders vowed to press for a full investigation of Mr. Mubarak’s finances.
Strikes and labor protests spread to the Cairo airport and the nation’s largest textile factory, despite pleas by the military for people to get back to work. Economists have warned that the labor unrest is deepening an already catastrophic financial crisis and scaring off foreign investors.
On the 18th of February, Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an influential Sunni cleric who is banned from the United States and Britain for supporting violence against Israel and American forces in Iraq, delivered his first public sermon in the country in 50 years, emerging as a powerful voice in the struggle to shape what kind of Egyptian state emerges from the uprising. He addressed a crowd of more than one million who gathered in Tahrir Square to mourn those who died in the protests. Meanwhile, the military warned restive workers that it would stop what it declared were illegal strikes crippling Egypt’s economy, declaring “it will confront them and take the legal measures needed to protect the nation’s security.”
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